This invention relates generally to automotive vehicles and more particularly to an automotive instrument panel for an automotive vehicle that includes a knee bolster for protecting the knees of front seat occupants in the event of a collision.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 mandates that the lower instrument panel of an automobile prevent knee damage in a thirty (30) mile per hour vehicle impact.
Conventional approaches use an open cell or resilient foam on a steel backed plastic or composite plate. See for instance U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,736 granted to Marinus Huisman Jun. 19, 1990 for a knee restraining device comprising an inflexible, hollow support member and a flexible deformation element that includes a sheet metal shell and a foam layer.
Other approaches utilize permanent or non-elastic deformation of structural members. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,136 granted to Norihiro Tomita et al Dec. 18, 1990 discloses an automotive knee protector comprising plates that are attached to V-shaped arms by shock absorbing members that are deformed responsive to a crash.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,011 granted to Yoshio Matsuno Aug. 23, 1983 which discloses a vehicle body construction comprising knee restraining members that are channel-shaped and collapsible or deformable non-elastically. The members are preferably covered with a suitable padding.